US COVID-19 vaccination uneven, high rates among federal personnel

NEW YORK - Some 92 percent of US federal employees and military personnel have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccines, far above the national level of less than 70 percent, while daily COVID-19 cases nationwide hover well above 90,000 during the holiday season.

Among them, nearly 5 percent more have asked for exemptions on religious or medical grounds, the White House said on Wednesday. At the largest federal agency, the Defense Department, 93.4 percent of military and federal personnel combined have received at least one vaccination dose, while another 5.5 percent have asked for exemptions, The Washington Post reported.

Among civil servants, vaccination percentages range from 86.1 percent at the Agriculture Department to 97.8 percent at the Agency for International Development (AID). Percentages of employees asking for exemptions also vary, from 10.2 percent at the Department of Veterans Affairs to 1.3 percent at AID and the State Department, said the report.

As of Thursday morning, 231,367,686 people have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, making up 69.7 percent of the whole US population; fully vaccinated people stood at 196,168,756, accounting for 59.1 percent of the total, official data show.